Thankful Me

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...

  Visitor Center sign in Zion National Park My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our adventures--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: Zion National Park in Utah.  Zion is a bit of a shibboleth. People from outside of Utah (or those who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) tend to pronounce Zion as "ZIE-on." Locals (or tourists who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) use more of a schwa sound, pronouncing Zion to rhyme with lion. However you choose to pronounce it, it is an amazing, beautiful national park and has some amazing hikes. The last time my husband and I visited Zion National Park, we entered from the east, and traveled through the mile-long Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel. It is an engineering marvel, completed in the 1920s. Before we passed through the tunnel, though, we spotted a group of bighorn sheep, including some babies...

  A lone bison grazes while Castle Geyser erupts in the background My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our adventures--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is my husband's Disneyland--his happiest place on Earth. The diversity of wildlife, the numerous geothermal features, and the stunning landscapes all combine to make visiting Yellowstone a bucket-list experience. It's no wonder it was the nation's (and even world's, according to Wikipedia) first national park! A baby bison grazing with its mother a large elk lies down in a field a muskrat swims in a lake Heart Spring, a heart shaped geothermal feature Beehive Geyser erupts under a partially cloudy sky Morning Glory pool displays many colors, from blue in the center to orange and brown at the edges the very clear Fish Lake, with the mountains in reflection the white travertine terraces of...

  a yellow diamond road sign with a picture of a cow on it My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our travels--some pre-retirement, some post. As we haven't traveled to anywhere that starts with the letter X, I was scratching my head to try to figure out exactly what I would cover for today's post--until my husband suggested sharing different crossing (Xing) signs that we have stumbled across in our travels. I'll let the signs speak for themselves: This panther Xing sign in Everglades National Park in Florida sparked the idea for today's post. a deer Xing sign somewhere in the western part of the USA a Xing sign declaring "open range" depicts a bull big horn sheep Xing sign Xing sign shows a person on horseback pedestrian Xing sign donkey Xing sign Tortoise Xing sign in Joshua Tree National Park a double Xing sign: horse on top, cattle on bottom another desert tortoise Xing sign a pedestr...

       Pink buds prepare to open on a horse chestnut tree On Tuesday, the texts and calls started flying between my Dad, brother, sister, and I. Mom had fallen and hurt her wrist. Spoiler alert: she will be OK, but did break her wrist.  1. I'm thankful for the ability to stay in touch. 2. I'm thankful for a relatively calm phase of life at the moment, which makes it easy to help when needed. 3. I'm thankful for my siblings, who although their commitments are more involved than mine right now, are always willing to come when needed. 4. I'm thankful for working vehicles. Yes, vehicles. Plural. The car that had been in the shop since December has finally really been fixed. We still drove the newer car to Oregon, but we had options. 5. I'm thankful for uneventful travel.  6. I'm thankful that our frequent vacations have made packing quick and easy, and we were able to throw together our bags without too much thought--and (as far as I know) we didn't forget anyt...

  A sign near the visitor's center parking lot says "White Sands National Park" My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our travels--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: White Sands National Park in New Mexico. White Sands National Park is aptly named. We took the mile-long Dune Life Nature Trail to learn more about the flora and fauna of the area, and were rewarded with finding several animal tracks in the sand. Lines of little tracks from some unknown animal decorate the sand While the sand dunes seem inhospitable to life, some trees defy the odds and somehow manage to find enough moisture to live. A lone tree, with roots visible above the sand, grows in the white sand The sand even covers the road, as this sign so helpfully tells visitors: a sign at the side of a sandy road states, "You are now Driving on Sand" We decided to try out the most popular activity at White Sand...